I went for a historical and sightseeing tour with a river tour company, en français. It was fun. The company has two French speakers, by coincidence. We kayaked up to the Broadway Avenue bridge and saw part of an Aquatennial event on the river. I realized that as long as I continue getting culture with the Alliance Française, and continue playing video games in French (while talking back to the game, in private, behind a locked door), I will never totally lose the language, and will be able to get by. However, I don’t want to lose any at all, and I want to improve. To lose it would be triste, dommage pour le fromage!
Some recent reading:
Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible
- I enjoyed how the author, Jerry Coyne, addresses accommodationist philosophers, scientists and theologians directly and calls them out for how they will do anything to avoid conflict with science. They are in a position of weakness and are desperate to avoid confrontation.
- He points out that many scientists depend on shrinking public budgets and must appease religious politicians and leaders to avoid getting even less for their research.
- I liked the description of theologians as “people who specialize in justifying beliefs acquired in childhood.” It jives with my own view of theology as being kind of like the study of leprechauns. He diligently cites the text of their arguments for non-overlapping “ways of knowing” and points out again and again how religious people make scientific claims of fact about the universe, and as soon as you make those factual claims, you are obligated to defend them.
Circumcision Exposed: Rethinking a Medical and Cultural Tradition
- This book is from 1998. Intactivists are waging a highly successful online battle against infant genital cutting. In addition major scientific studies and ethical papers increasingly discredit the practice. But we need more physical books on the subject, to provide the sweeping view of infant genital cutting, its cultural and tribal roots, and the way the medical reason for it changes as soon as the previous reason is discredited.
- The author, Billy Ray Boyd, offers an optimistic thought on how intactivism is neither right nor left, but has the potential to bring out the best of liberals and conservatives. They can both get behind the movement for the right reasons. Conservatives ought to be in favor of autonomy and freedom of choice and an open future for the child. And liberals ought to be in favor of removing culturally entrenched violence, and of guaranteeing every child a birth without violence.
Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto
- This one was actually pretty funny. It interspersed the outrage we should all feel (the new publicly financed Vikings stadium was prominently described) with some great humor.
- This book is very short but the author, Steve Almond, names and exposes each problematic aspect of pro football, including the racial/social, economic, medical and sexual aspects.
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is now a household term (or at least its acronym, CTE, is). Seeing once-fine physical specimens turn forgetful, depressed, suicidal and unpredictable in their forties and fifties will wake people up. According Almond, even Brett Favre has admitted he could’t remember attending his daughter’s soccer games.
pseudoisaac 